The First Corporate Education Leaders Forum was held in Lipetsk on 20–24 June. Managers and representatives of educational divisions of companies, training centers, business schools and universities discussed the new promising cooperation vectors. Saint Petersburg University was represented by the Graduate School of Management SPbU.

The Corporate Education Leaders Forum took place at NLMK Corporate University campus. Among the participants there were managers and representatives of various corporate and business educational entities: corporate universities and the country's top L&Ds, EdTech providers and training centers, business schools and universities. As part of the event, the guests visited the exhibition Digital Education Systems, Analytics Systems for Education and got familiar with up-to-date IT products and cases on how to apply them.

In periods of economic turbulence education becomes especially important and relevant as a form of staff development. Large businesses continue to add capacity to their corporate universities. Another trend is joint educational projects created by companies together with universities and business schools. This is what Olga Dergunova, Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board, GSOM SPbU Director spoke about during her presentation: "University business schools, such as GSOM SPbU, are full-fledged players on the corporate education market. Two years ago, together with the Business School's advisors, we started to invest into the development of this expertise to obtain an up-to-date technologic format of short-term programs by combining academic content and our professional market-based approach. There's an entire untapped market segment comprising about 12 million people — line managers and young leaders. Beginner managers often lack knowledge and competence, and short-term programs can fill this gap".

Another topic relevant for corporate education — transfer to online learning — was actively discussed at the forum. Competent use of modern technology solutions allows to reduce the price and increase the efficiency of staff training. Olga Alkanova, Senior Lecturer at the Marketing Department, chairman of the Assurance of Learning Committee and Head of the Teaching Excellence Lab in Business Education of GSOM SPbU participated in the discussion: "It if often impossible to gather homogeneous groups for continuing education programs: some students know a lot, and some — almost nothing. Online learning can help solve this problem, as part of the information can be presented in asynchronous or other flexible format, making it unnecessary for the whole group to meet. Online format allows to create personal learning paths within one program. Of course, we cannot teach a surgeon to perform operations this way, but we can provide knowledge, show examples and present more case studies. Another effective solution is hybrid format, when part of the participants comes to the class and the other part joins online. This way we save a lot. When hybrid learning is well-designed in terms of pedagogy, it allows online students to be as engaged in teamwork and interaction with professors as those present in the classroom. Hybrid format is very convenient for a number of tasks that involve presentation of information".

GSOM SPbU is a leader among university business schools in the area of introduction and research of teaching methods in modern technological environments. Under the support of its advisors the Business School invests into EdTech expertise development with a focus on teaching methods, as well as frontier studies in the field of new education tools – AR, VR, AI, ML and digital trail. As part of this work the Teaching Excellence Lab in Business Education was launched, which is occupied with implementation of innovative teaching approaches and unique digital tools, professor training and development. GSOM SPbU team has developed and designed a general-purpose configuration of a hybrid classroom that may be scaled for other educational institutions, including corporate universities.

Corporate segment development is an important part of GSOM SPbU strategy. This year the Center for Online Continuing Education Programs (Center for Online CEP) was launched on the basis of the Business School, which focuses on line and middle manager training. Effective short-term courses offered by the Center help the students to gain knowledge and skills relating to key administrative, functional and digital competences in the field of management. Convenient online format provides access to the global best practices in education and business for companies from all Russian regions and CIS countries. The center's educational products ensure the high level of learning outcomes despite a large number of students on a program.